this post was submitted on 03 Mar 2026
67 points (94.7% liked)

xkcd

16034 readers
247 users here now

A community for a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
top 9 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] WagnasT@piefed.world 8 points 1 month ago

Only involves one single person, still manages to destroy the earth.

[–] ThePantser@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I thought he would have stopped at space as you are not going "up" anymore.

[–] hitstun@feddit.online 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

For me, "down" is the direction that gravity you pulls you, and "up" is the opposite. As you leave Earth's orbit and orbit the Sun instead, you start moving away from the Sun at 1 foot per second instead, unless doing so would move you back into a planet's orbit.

[–] CreamyJalapenoSauce@piefed.social 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What if you hit some sort of local Lagrange point?

[–] knightly@pawb.social 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If all the local sources of gravity are balanced out, then you'd probably start moving away from the center of the galaxy.

[–] hitstun@feddit.online 5 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Alternatively, if you are constantly x feet above a spot on Earth, where x is the number of seconds since takeoff, we have a different problem. You'd be in a geostationary orbit above that spot, following the Earth as it rotates, no matter how far away you are. After about ~~~~10~~~~ 860,000 years, you are traveling at the speed of light, and this only increases. Hope your body doesn't impact Proxima Centauri.

Edit: Oops, I assumed an Earth day is 1 second instead of 86,000 seconds

[–] spinning_disk_engineer@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago

Edit: Oops, I assumed an Earth day is 1 second instead of 86,000 seconds

I don't think that one's been made for Youtube yet.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 1 month ago

Original static webpage version: https://what-if.xkcd.com/64/